Improvement in fruit-drying houses



2 Sheets-Sheet 1 W. H. ROGERS. Fruit-Drying House.

No. 205,683. If Paten ly 2.1878

2 Sheets-Sheet 2..

W. H. ROGERS. Fruit-Drying House.

Patented July 2,1878.

IUIUIIJEIIIIHHI min mfil m IDIUIDEIIEIHI IUID'IDEIIIIIIII I gn ln ln m mf PETERS. PHOm' LITHDGR WASmNGION D c UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

W ILLI'AM H. ROGERS, OF WILLIAMSON, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN FRUIT-DRYING HOUSES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 205,683, dated July2,1878; application filed May 11, 1878.

of Williamson, in the county of Wayne and State of New York, haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Fruit-Drying Houses;and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, andv exactdescription of the construction and operation of the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a verticalsection of a building, showing my improvement. Fig. 2 is a horizontalsection in line 00 a; of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a similar section in line 3Fig. 4 is a plan of the heat-conveying trunk, showing more particularlythe perforated or slotted diaphragm therein. Fig. 5 is a detail view,showing one of the slots and its cover in the diaphragm.

My improvement relates to fruit-dryinghouses in which the cars forcontaining the fruit are run from the operating-room into thedrying-room on tracks which extend through both rooms.

The invention consists in a new and improved arrangement of the parts,whereby two or more sets of the cars may be used, one above the other,thereby securing greater capacity in drying; also, in a diaphragm ofpeculiar construction interposed between the furnace and theheatingchamber, all as hereinafter described.

The drawing represents a building of considerable size, having, inaddition to the drying-room A and operating-room B, (adjoining eachother, as before described,) other subrooms, O and D, which are used forvarious purposes in storing and preparing the fruit.

The rooms A and B are provided with bot tom tracks a a and elevatedtracks b b, which extend continuously the whole length of the two rooms.On the depressed tracks rest the cars E E, which form the lowerperforated floor of the drying-room, while from the elevated tracks aresuspended the cars G G, which form the upper perforated floor. hen inthe drying-room, these two sets of cars are located one above the other,as shown in Fig. 1, and each floor covers the whole cross-area of thedrying-chamber, so that the heat which arises from the furnace is forcedto pass through both of said floors before it can escape through theventilator at the top.

The top of the cars are covered by wirecloth, as shown.

H H are hinged valves, which are suspended between the two rooms A B,and form a part of the partition between the said rooms. They arepreferably made to open outward into the operating-room B. They comeopposite the ends of the cars, and extend across the whole width of therooms. If desired, they may be made in sectional form-that is, eachvalve of such size as to allow the passage of a single car, and enoughof them used to correspond with the number of lines of cars. The lowervalve may be made in two parts, with double hinges, to facilitateopening and closing, if desired, as shown in Fig. 1. These valves, whenopened, allow the passage of the cars from one room to the other, andretain the heat in the drying-room by closing as soon as the car haspassed.

I is the heat-conveying trunk, which is in the shape of an invertedfrustum of a pyramid, the upper open end resting under the whole surfaceof the drying-chamber, while the lower contracted end is closed, and hasresting therein a furnace or fire-place, K, with a door opening outward,and provided at the top with a perforated dome, f, which allows the heatto escape directinto the trunk, whence it passes up through thedryingroom, as before described. If desired, the furnace may be entirelyclosed, and the heat may pass into the trunk simply by radiation.

L is a diaphragm, of sheet metal, resting across the heat-conveyingtrunk near its top. It is provided with a series of slots, 1, and coversh, formed by slitting the metal and turning the cut portion up, as shownin Fig. 1. In use, the covers or flanges are bent up or down to covermore or less of the slots, thus regulating the heat. This can be easilydone by hand at any time.

When once regulated or gaged to the size of building or room employed,these valves require but little change.

This device is simple and cheap, is easily regulated, and allows freeand uniform diffusion of the heat from the top of the heating trunk intothe drying-chamber.

I am aware that cars covered with wire-cloth and running upon a trackare well known in fruit-driers. They are usually of small size, and arerun from the outside into a heat-passage, and discharged in the samemanner.

The distinction between my invention and such devices is that the earsare arranged in a series to form a regular drying-floor of large size,and two rooms are so combined, having continuous tracks running throughboth of them, that the entire floor may be run from one room into theother for the purpose of applying or removing the fruit, and then backagain, without trouble.

By means of the valves before described, the heat can be retained in thedrying-room while the cars are being loaded or unloaded, and they serveto cut off the heat from the operating room, preserving the latter in acomfortable condition for the operatives. Furthermore, by theconstruction described, two or more floors are made available, securinggreater capacity in the same space, with all the advantages before setforth.

The apparatus above described is also adapted to drying vegetables andother materials.

Having thus described my invention, I do not claim slotted plates in theheat-conveying trunk for regulating the passage of heat; but

I claim 1. In combination with the two apartments A B, communicatingwith each other, as described, the two sets of tracks a a and b I), oneresting on the floor and the other being elevated, and the two sets ofcars E E and G G, running respectively 011 said tracks and forming twoseparate drying-floors, movable from one apartment to the other, asshown and described, and for the purpose specified.

2. In a fruit drying house such as described, the diaphragm L,interposed in the trunk I between the furnace and the dryingroom,constructed with a series of flanges, h h, cut in the body of the same,and arranged to graduate or regulate the passage of heat into thedrying-room by the bending of said flanges up or down over the slots 9g, as shown and described, and for the purpose specified.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

\V. H. ROGERS. \Vi tnesses:

W. S. THROOP, J OHN M. REYNoLDs.

